Google Voice vs. Rakuten Viber

In the past, I would have happily recommended this for small business use cases. Due to its affordability, versatility, and low barrier to entry as well as its simplicity to use. Google Voice was integrated into the Chrome Browser, it was easily accessed from Gmail, and integrated into Gmail and could even be leveraged in such a way to when phone numbers were clicked on, Google Voice was the tool used. However over the past few years and more, in the past couple of years from 2021 to current, this tool seems to have lost favor with the Alphabet suite of tools. With the lack of integrations, it's becoming less stable, and people are just opting more for Google Meet Voice. The biggest area where this is less appropriate and where opportunity has opened for others is its lack of features, like virtual attendants, call recording, call transcription, SMS, MMS, CRM integration, and other key features even 1 or 2 person business really needs in this day and age

Incentivized

It's perfect for messaging and group messaging, especially when users in group are from different places, organizations... (unlike slack where you have to be member of same organization to be in same group). The video calls are the weak point of the app, so Viber is not good for conference calls, video calls and especially for group video conference calls.

Incentivized

• Google Voice has been great for setting up additional phone lines and numbers.
• The voicemail inbox is a great feature and you can see when messages come in online and listen to the messages from your computer.
• Google Voice allows us to have multiple phone numbers and lines for specific business purposes.

Incentivized

• It is very easy to use and is very user-friendly.
• You can have high quality video and audio meetings with more than 1 person.
• You can upload any type of file in Viber (video, audio, text, GIFs, PDF files).
• It is a very well known messenger so all people have access to it.

Incentivized

• It can be tricky to configure exactly how you want it. If you are particular about which voicemail greeting goes to which number, and how it appears when it rings through to the phone - it can take a good amount of work to set it up properly.

Incentivized

• As far as I can tell, Viber lacks the feature to block specific callers/numbers. I've never needed to do this, but I'd like to know I have the option.
• Viber cannot be used without wifi, so it is not possible to connect with contacts who aren't also using Viber. (Unless you want to use the paid service.)
• This isn't a major complaint, but I find the layout of Viber to be a little cluttered. Comparing it to WhatsApp, I don't find it to be quite as user-friendly, and I sometimes stumble around to find my way to a contact to call.

Incentivized

It's user friendly, how to use it is self explanatory, they support all their own options while someone like Phone Booth uses a third party. I can cancel Google Voice anytime and I choose how much I spend with Google Voice

I think it works really well in the arena it operates in, but not so well in areas where an enterprise system would be more appropriate. It's great for quick solutions that just work, but not so much for more complex call management tasks.

Incentivized

They do not offer support unless you have the Business account for Google Voice under G Suite. This is tough, because Google doesn't really have a customer support team for this service, so when it gets shut down for a few hours, we have no choice but to wait it out. But this doesn't happen that often, which is great.

Incentivized

I have not frequently used the support for Viber as I have not had many problems with it on my phone. I did use support one time for problems with the computer application and used the forums to solve my problems. They were fairly easy to follow and I appreciated the online help in that format.

Incentivized

It is a pretty seamless program to transfer to, even for people who either have little experience with these programs or people who were stuck on Skype

Incentivized

Google Voice operates in a narrow niche compared to other high-volume call products, such as Gong and Outreach. Google Voice would be much better, structured for small teams with limited calling, less structure, and fewer call scripts. For instance, this would better serve a support motion, where you provide a phone number for customers to call, so you have some level of routing and an end destination. If you were also expecting constant change in the personnel who have assigned numbers, it is easy to provision and remove numbers, but you might lose continuity with some of the phone numbers being allocated.

Incentivized

Rakuten Viber is overall the best. Hands down!!! Even though the other products have their own use and they are well functioning in the market, but Rakuten Viber is still top notch!

Incentivized

• Google Voice has saved us a lot of time in regards to overall productivity.
• Google Voice allows us to operate at a greater scale than without it.
• Google voice allows us to track which advertisements are working best.
• Google Voice allows us to spend less time listening to voicemails.

Incentivized

• Rakuten Viber allows me to delete any type of message I've sent
• Rakuten Viber can't access or read my private conversations in the first place, Viber can't sell them.
• Hidden Chats allows me to keep whatever chats I want away from my main chat list, so they don't show up in my main chat list. Only a PIN that I set gives me access to Hidden Chats.

Incentivized